1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates to bi-level addressing of data packets routed through a broadband access link and an Internet protocol network of a telecommunications service provider.
2. Acronyms
The written description provided herein contains acronyms which refer to various telecommunications services, components and techniques, as well as features relating to the present invention. Although some of these acronyms are known, use of these acronyms is not strictly standardized in the art. For purposes of the written description herein, the acronyms are defined as follows:                Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)        Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS)        Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)        Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM)        Domain Naming System (DNS)        Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)        Internet Protocol (IP)        Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4)        Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)        Internet Service Provider (ISP)        Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)        Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)        Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)        Request for Comment (RFC)        Telecommunications Service Provider (TSP)        Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)        User Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol (UDP/IP)        
3. Background and Material Information
Telecommunications service providers (TSPs) face increasing demand on their networks to provide access to Internet service provider (ISP) or other remote IP networks, such as corporate and private networks and intranets, application service provider networks, and the like, for mass-market subscribers. Currently, many TSPs use asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) connections and point-to-point protocol (PPP) to provide subscribers access to the TSP networks. Increasing quality of service necessarily involves increased ATM connections or PPP sessions, which increases operational expense and slows new service activations.
Also, each ISP or other IP network service provider typically maintains an IP address block to assign unique IP addresses to the various subscribers. Likewise, the TSP providing access to the IP network typically assigns IP addresses to the subscribers from a dedicated TSP address block, as well as to each ISP or other IP network. Alternatively, the TSP network assigns IP addreses to the subscribers on behalf of the ISP or other IP network, which requires the TSP network to maintain multiple, separate logical networks.
Accommodating the enormous number of IP addresses and routing requirements of the associated subscriber data can overwhelm the TSP's ability to provision and maintain connections. The TSP is therefore limited in the number of mass-market subscribers for which it is able to provide access to IP networks, especially with respect to broadband access. The present invention overcomes this problem associated with the prior art, as described below.